Columnists

This is where you will find all of The Rugby Paper’s Columnists news, views, opinion and other content.

Peter Jackson: Hold it all! England have won the title…

4 April 2013 2 comments

When the Six Nations discuss the ‘on-going’ issue of bonus points, they would be well advised to examine the distorted impact it would have had […]

Nick Cain assesses the potential outcomes of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals

4 April 2013 0 comments

Can England’s leading club sides come up trumps when it is all on the line, or will they follow in the footsteps of Stuart Lancaster’s […]

Jeff Probyn: Selection of Marler cost England the game

3 April 2013 3 comments

As the wheels fell off England‘s Chariot in Cardiff I couldn’t help thinking that it was probably for the best. The meteoric rise in the […]

Jeremy Guscott: Don’t despair, we will come good

30 March 2013 1 comment

Stuart Lancaster has said he wants his England side to have amassed 600 caps between them before the 2015 World Cup…and yesterday in the Millennium […]

Nick Cain: Gatland must think French

29 March 2013 1 comment

There are not many Lions coaches who go into a tour on the back of a vintage Six Nations, and Warren Gatland is no exception. […]

Peter Jackson: Welsh will grab Lions share for Australia

28 March 2013 0 comments

After smashing the team that smashed the All Blacks, Wales will take the Lions‘ share when the Test series begins against Australia this summer. No […]

Jeff Probyn: End this cult of ‘superstar’ refs and sort out the scrum

27 March 2013 0 comments

If there is one thing that has made this Six Nations Championship more memorable than most, it is the controversy that has surrounded the referees. In almost […]

Nick Cain assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of England and Italy

24 March 2013 0 comments

Italy have yet to beat England in the Six Nations, and, given that their only away win in the tournament since they joined it 13 […]

Jeremy Guscott: Grand Slam won’t faze this England

23 March 2013 1 comment

Wales are a dangerous side if they bring their best game to Cardiff on Saturday against England because they have ability man-for-man in their backline. […]

Nick Cain: Let Welsh go Scott-free and return their points

22 March 2013 1 comment

Tyson Keats is innocent. Mike Scott is not. That was the only verdict that was clear in the Friday night disciplinary fog as the RFU […]

Peter Jackson: Trust me, Cardiff jinx waits for Lancaster!

21 March 2013 0 comments

At a dinner in London some years ago, the English defined their rugby relationship with the Welsh as one based on “trust and understanding”. Dudley […]

Jeff Probyn: These ‘hospitality’ packages are just fleecing the fans

20 March 2013 1 comment

It would seem that Nick Cain‘s expose of the Lion’s tour ticket price rigging is just the tip of the ‘rip-off rugby ticket’ ice berg. […]

Nick Cain looks at the England build-up to Italy – and beyond to the Lions

17 March 2013 0 comments

When teams which have battled to get within reach of big prizes start to batten down the hatches and ban words like ‘Grand’ and ‘Slam’ […]

Jeremy Guscott: Launchbury has been the find of the season

16 March 2013 2 comments

Joe Launchbury has been the find of the international season. The England lock has a great range of skills for a big man, and his […]

Nick Cain: Welsh are embroiled in new fight for justice

15 March 2013 1 comment

There are times, as we all know, when the law is an ass. Usually this coincides with legal technicalities getting in the way of, or […]

Peter Jackson: It’s whisky galore if Telfer tribe triumph

14 March 2013 0 comments

When Scotland last won three matches on the bounce in the same Championship, they showed their gratitude to Wales by sending them 22 bottles of […]

Jeff Probyn: President Jason can use his powers to help grassroots

13 March 2013 0 comments

The action of the RFU Council in overturning their nominations panel’s choice of president for the 2015 World Cup is probably their most significant in […]

Peter Jackson talks to Maesteg coach Richard Webster about the startling decline of Welsh club rugby

11 March 2013 2 comments

There was a time when the Welsh club game was the envy of the rugby world, when popular legend had it that the pithead superintendent […]

Nick Cain assesses the dramatic fight for survival at the bottom of the Premiership

10 March 2013 2 comments

If relegation is meant to be all about dull, unambitious, lock-tight rugby then London Welsh and Sale have not been listening. Nor, for that matter, […]

Jeremy Guscott: Breathless, but the Referee didn’t blow

9 March 2013 1 comment

Stuart Lancaster spoke before this game about the last 20 minutes being crucial, about how England’s now superior fitness would pay dividends as the French […]

Nick Cain: Lions levy hits their own fans

8 March 2013 1 comment

The latest twist in the Lions Test ticket story is that the Australian Rugby Union has refuted the statement from a senior Lions administrator that […]

Peter Jackson: Tragic Nick helps pal Huw keep injury in perspective

7 March 2013 0 comments

Sometime on Wednesday morning Huw Bennett will bow his head and remember the day they buried his friend in a churchyard near the Thames. The […]

Jeff Probyn: Lancaster was always in win-win situation with RFU

6 March 2013 1 comment

It’s just over a year ago that many observers were questioning the decision of the RFU to appoint a ‘nobody’ as temporary coach while looking […]

Nick Cain talks to Tom Wood about his triumphant return to England’s back row

3 March 2013 0 comments

Tom Wood is the embodiment of the new England. He is a fierce marauder who uses his mobility and work-rate to pressurise the opposition, his […]

Jeremy Guscott: Clockwork England show their composure

2 March 2013 0 comments

Remember the great England World Cup-winning side and the management mantra that came from their head coach Sir Clive Woodward, T-CUP, which was shorthand for […]

Nick Cain: Here’s the real reason for Warren Gatland’s outburst

1 March 2013 2 comments

None of the explanations I’ve heard so far for Warren Gatland‘s ill-conceived comments about the divisive potential of having too many English players in a […]

Peter Jackson: Ryan aware that Welsh armband fits loosely

28 February 2013 4 comments

Wales have changed their captain so often in recent seasons that Ryan Jones is in his ninth spell in charge. In Rome on Saturday, he […]

Jeff Probyn: I’m starting to believe in a Grand Slam for England

27 February 2013 0 comments

It has often been said that a week in rugby is a long time. Two weeks ago I sang the praises of the Six Nations […]

Nick Cain looks at the key areas which will decide today’s battle at the Aviva stadium, Dublin

24 February 2013 0 comments

It is a decade since England last won in Dublin in the Six Nations. In the interim there have been heartache and heavy defeats inflicted […]

Jeremy Guscott: BOD magic captured in a move from the matrix

23 February 2013 1 comment

The best centre I have seen play in the last decade is Brian O’Driscoll. That’s not forgetting my favourites, Philippe Sella, Frank Bunce or Tim […]

Nick Cain: Yes to bonus points, no to TV-driven fixture lists

22 February 2013 0 comments

There are so many contradictory knee-jerk spoutings about the Six Nations that you sometimes wonder whether Glenda Slagg has taken up residence in the Twickenham […]

Peter Jackson: Rowlands remains Top Cat of the lineout

21 February 2013 0 comments

The 50th anniversary of perhaps the strangest of all Wales matches has come and gone with scarcely a mention. Admittedly it did not merit anything […]

Jeff Probyn: Mutual trust is what bonds a winning squad together

20 February 2013 2 comments

Why is it that every England team have to proffer the idea that they are so different to those that have gone before? I know […]

Nick Cain talks to Fred Michalak who has gone from enfant terrible to mature superstar

17 February 2013 2 comments

Fred Michalak is France’s main man going into this Six Nations, with all the signs pointing towards flaky Fred having been transformed into formidable Fred. […]

Jeremy Guscott: Hold onto your hats for a humdinger!

16 February 2013 3 comments

Owen Farrell will rightly get the headlines for his latest incarnation as England‘s Iceman. But he will also be the first to acknowledge that his […]

Nick Cain: Can Stuart Lancaster do everything?

15 February 2013 0 comments

There are a couple of questions that need urgent answers since Stuart Lancaster‘s extraordinary elevation this week from being the England head coach, for just […]

Peter Jackson: WRU see sense with price cut

14 February 2013 0 comments

When he retired after captaining Wales at the 1995 World Cup in Johannesburg, Mike Hall began to make the most of his degree in land […]

Jeff Probyn: Memo to Telfer: the Scots are most elitist of them all

13 February 2013 2 comments

So the English are too arrogant, too pretentious and too condescending and the Welsh are lazy, or so says former Scotland coach Jim Telfer. For […]

Nick Cain : Ben Morgan set to fire with Telfer ‘bullet up his bum’

10 February 2013 1 comment

Ben Morgan couldn’t be in more illustrious company. A quick scan of who the Gloucester and England No.8 will be contending with in this season’s […]

Jeremy Guscott: No Manu Tuilagi? Then send for speedy Jonathan Joseph

9 February 2013 0 comments

How could England lose at home to the old enemy after beating New Zealand so convincingly? It’s so fresh in the mind it feels like […]

Nick Cain: the Scots are no pushovers

8 February 2013 0 comments

Two months ago there was not a single scribe, broadcaster, or media pundit anywhere who predicted England would beat New Zealand. And with England and […]

Peter Jackson: Bonus points could cost Grand Slammers the title

7 February 2013 4 comments

Six years ago France went into the final match of the final round knowing exactly what they had to do to win the Six Nations […]

Jeff Probyn: Scotland must prove they should not be demoted

6 February 2013 5 comments

Just one more week and the wait is over for the most eagerly awaited Six Nations Championship in years. Each of the participating countries has […]

Nick Cain talks to England and Tigers hooker Tom Youngs about Toulouse and Six Nations

3 February 2013 0 comments

Tom Youngs talks as he plays. Direct, to the point, honest, and over the past year his hard-working, uncomplicated attitude has opened up an international […]

Jeremy Guscott: Tiger tanks needed to halt the Toulouse titans

2 February 2013 1 comment

For a club the size of Leicester Tigers going another season without the Heineken Cup up for grabs has to be seen as a failure, […]

Nick Cain: Wasps good enough for Dally, so why not Billy?

1 February 2013 0 comments

Billy Vunipola‘s decision to leave Wasps and join forces with his brother, Mako, at Saracens is surprising given that he is only in his second […]

Peter Jackson: Vunipola’s defied dad to play for England

31 January 2013 1 comment

Wales are converting another South African to their Six Nations’ cause and Scotland are back in the business of importing kilted Kiwis. Not to be […]

Jeff Probyn: Being paid to play for your country feels wrong

30 January 2013 1 comment

A question that is often asked is what price international rugby? Well, now we know. If the players play as many matches as they did […]

Jeremy Guscott: Twelvetrees could be England’s missing link

26 January 2013 0 comments

Selecting Billy Twelvetrees for his EPS squad is a smart move by Stuart Lancaster because he’s selecting on form plus Twelvetrees provides a different style […]